Gov. Jennifer Granholm said she would veto the bill even if that means a partial shutdown of state government.

Bishop criticized Granholm for offering a government shutdown as an option before passing the bill.

“At the very least, a shutdown should never be used by a responsible elected official as a threat,” he said.

Bishop, flanked by 15 Senate Republicans, said he would not allow a government shutdown to happen.

Liz Boyd, Granholm’s spokeswoman, said a continuation budget is not the answer.

“The Legislature has one job and that is to pass the budget,” Boyd said.

“The Legislature has had seven months to do this. Why should the people of the state of Michigan think they can pass a budget in the 30 days after Oct. 1 when they’ve been unable to do so in seven months leading up to it?”

Bishop said a continuation budget is the latest of several spending cuts Senate Republicans have proposed that Democrats have rejected. The largest amount in cuts they have proposed was $1.7 billion.

“Those $1.7 billion in cuts are deep cuts — they will change the way the government operates,” he said.

Still, Bishop said the cuts would have been far better than shutting government down.

Tom Lenard, spokesman for Senate Democrats, said the problem with such proposals wasn’t the amount in cuts, but where they were coming from.

“If they’re going to try to do a billion dollars in cuts, the Democrats disagree that we should be cutting education and higher education,” he said.

Lenard said Democrats are willing to negotiate spending cuts as long as education, public safety, health care and areas of government are safe.